Social services groups, others plead for more county funding
Ulman warns next year will be 'more challenging'
By Jennifer Broadwater
jbroadwater@patuxent.com
Posted 12/17/09
The weak economy played the role of the Grinch at a public hearing this week, where residents pleaded with County Executive Kenneth Ulman to aid their causes in the coming year’s county budget.
Particularly stark was the picture painted of the economy’s effect on human service providers, who told Ulman that demand for their services has spiked at the same time their resources have dwindled.
Meanwhile, other county agencies, such as Howard Community College and the Howard County Library, also cited unprecedented increased demand, attributed, in part, to economic factors.
Ulman, for his part, promised to do what he could, but was not especially encouraging.
“As tough as this year is ... we predict next year to be more challenging,” Ulman said. “I love you all and wish I could give you everything you will be asking for.”
The county’s current General Fund budget is $820 million. Ulman’s public hearing on Dec. 16 was intended to help him craft a proposed budget for fiscal 2011, which begins July 1, 2010. Ulman will release a budget proposal in April and the County Council will then review it.
Of the 25 people who testified Dec. 16, many represented human service agencies.
Harry Schwarz, who spoke on behalf of the Association of Community Services, which represents 125 providers, told Ulman that the county’s unemployment rate (which has climbed over the past year 3.6 percent in October 2008 to 5.5 percent this October, the most recent figures available) has forced many families to seek services for the first time. Many of the association’s members receive funding from a variety of sources, including county funding through Community Service Partnership grants.
“While the economy struggles, the need for services has increased across the board,” Schwarz said. “In these challenging economic times, the county must continue to implement every measure and mechanism at its disposal to hold harmless human service programs.”
Schwarz asked the county to create a housing trust fund to increase its stock of affordable housing, pointing out that more than 3,000 people are on a waiting list for public housing vouchers and rental assistance.
Grassroots, the county’s homeless shelter, provided 27,500 services this year and predicts even more requests in the coming year, board member Mimi O’Donnell told Ulman.
She added that the shelter hopes to launch proactive programs aimed at helping residents prevent homelessness and maintain their housing.
“More people know where to go for help — that’s a good thing,” O’Donnell said.
FIRN, a Columbia-based agency that assists immigrants, saw an 86 percent increase in demand over the past year while dealing with a 22 percent decrease in financial contributions, executive director Jennifer Blake said.
Janet Edelman, of Howard’s branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, spoke of increased demand for services for those facing economic crisis and veterans returning from war.
Advocates for the county’s library system and community college also made their cases.
Valerie Gross, executive director of the Howard County Library, said the system’s six branches had three million visits and 6.6 million items borrowed over the past year — a 17 percent increase that other library patrons attributed at least in part to the economy, which has families looking for free resources.
She asked for the county to continue library funding necessary to pay staff, and maintain sufficient hours and materials.
A county teacher and two parents also spoke of the importance of the libraries.
Bryan Booth, of Ellicott City, said the library was of great value to his family, especially his seventh-grade son who is a voracious reader.
“The library is the place where he’s home,” Booth said, in emotional testimony. “I tell you, when he walks in the door it’s the best place to him. As a parent, you can’t know how much it means to me. ... Libraries are the lifeblood of every community.”
HCC president Kate Hetherington, supported by about 25 college employees, told Ulman the college’s greatest capital need was for a second parking garage.
Enrollment was up 12 percent this fall and is expected to continue growing in the spring semester and when the college’s new Health Science building is completed, thus exacerbating the existing parking shortage, she said. The new building is currently being designed and is expected to take about 20 months to build, Hetherington said.
In addition, HCC Board of Trustees chairman James Truby told Ulman that the college hopes to recognize the work of its faculty through pay increases.
Superintendent of Schools Sydney Cousin, meanwhile, was among those who outlined for Ulman the measures he’d taken in the current fiscal year to cut expenses, including furloughs, eliminating some positions, using long-term substitute teachers to fill vacancies, and cutting down on custodial overtime.
He added that federal stimulus money currently supporting the system’s budget are a “stopgap” that will expire in 2012.
“In fiscal year 2012, we will find ourselves at the edge of a funding cliff,” Cousin said, noting that the system grew by 800 students this year with $400,000 less operating funds.
Others at the hearing were more concerned with too much spending.
Scaggsville resident Jeff Robinson urged Ulman to avoid raising taxes in order to address budgetary needs. He said a tax hike would strain residents and business owners and discourage new residents and businesses from moving into the county.
“We need to recognize we’re still in a recession,” he said. “We will only be kicking Howard Countians where they’re already down and will be undermining the recovery we so desperately need.”
While acknowledging the county’s fiscal constraints, two residents renewed their request for an indoor, county-operated 50-meter competition pool.
Ellicott City resident Sean Costello and his sons, Benjamin and Kevin, told Ulman how such a pool would benefit the county’s large population of swimmers, and could make high school swim teams possible.
“We know time are tough and a lot of people are going to come to you with their hands out,” Costello said. “But if we don’t make some concrete steps toward this, it’s never going to happen.”
Particularly stark was the picture painted of the economy’s effect on human service providers, who told Ulman that demand for their services has spiked at the same time their resources have dwindled.
Meanwhile, other county agencies, such as Howard Community College and the Howard County Library, also cited unprecedented increased demand, attributed, in part, to economic factors.
Ulman, for his part, promised to do what he could, but was not especially encouraging.
“As tough as this year is ... we predict next year to be more challenging,” Ulman said. “I love you all and wish I could give you everything you will be asking for.”
The county’s current General Fund budget is $820 million. Ulman’s public hearing on Dec. 16 was intended to help him craft a proposed budget for fiscal 2011, which begins July 1, 2010. Ulman will release a budget proposal in April and the County Council will then review it.
Of the 25 people who testified Dec. 16, many represented human service agencies.
Harry Schwarz, who spoke on behalf of the Association of Community Services, which represents 125 providers, told Ulman that the county’s unemployment rate (which has climbed over the past year 3.6 percent in October 2008 to 5.5 percent this October, the most recent figures available) has forced many families to seek services for the first time. Many of the association’s members receive funding from a variety of sources, including county funding through Community Service Partnership grants.
“While the economy struggles, the need for services has increased across the board,” Schwarz said. “In these challenging economic times, the county must continue to implement every measure and mechanism at its disposal to hold harmless human service programs.”
Schwarz asked the county to create a housing trust fund to increase its stock of affordable housing, pointing out that more than 3,000 people are on a waiting list for public housing vouchers and rental assistance.
Grassroots, the county’s homeless shelter, provided 27,500 services this year and predicts even more requests in the coming year, board member Mimi O’Donnell told Ulman.
She added that the shelter hopes to launch proactive programs aimed at helping residents prevent homelessness and maintain their housing.
“More people know where to go for help — that’s a good thing,” O’Donnell said.
FIRN, a Columbia-based agency that assists immigrants, saw an 86 percent increase in demand over the past year while dealing with a 22 percent decrease in financial contributions, executive director Jennifer Blake said.
Janet Edelman, of Howard’s branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, spoke of increased demand for services for those facing economic crisis and veterans returning from war.
Advocates for the county’s library system and community college also made their cases.
Valerie Gross, executive director of the Howard County Library, said the system’s six branches had three million visits and 6.6 million items borrowed over the past year — a 17 percent increase that other library patrons attributed at least in part to the economy, which has families looking for free resources.
She asked for the county to continue library funding necessary to pay staff, and maintain sufficient hours and materials.
A county teacher and two parents also spoke of the importance of the libraries.
Bryan Booth, of Ellicott City, said the library was of great value to his family, especially his seventh-grade son who is a voracious reader.
“The library is the place where he’s home,” Booth said, in emotional testimony. “I tell you, when he walks in the door it’s the best place to him. As a parent, you can’t know how much it means to me. ... Libraries are the lifeblood of every community.”
HCC president Kate Hetherington, supported by about 25 college employees, told Ulman the college’s greatest capital need was for a second parking garage.
Enrollment was up 12 percent this fall and is expected to continue growing in the spring semester and when the college’s new Health Science building is completed, thus exacerbating the existing parking shortage, she said. The new building is currently being designed and is expected to take about 20 months to build, Hetherington said.
In addition, HCC Board of Trustees chairman James Truby told Ulman that the college hopes to recognize the work of its faculty through pay increases.
Superintendent of Schools Sydney Cousin, meanwhile, was among those who outlined for Ulman the measures he’d taken in the current fiscal year to cut expenses, including furloughs, eliminating some positions, using long-term substitute teachers to fill vacancies, and cutting down on custodial overtime.
He added that federal stimulus money currently supporting the system’s budget are a “stopgap” that will expire in 2012.
“In fiscal year 2012, we will find ourselves at the edge of a funding cliff,” Cousin said, noting that the system grew by 800 students this year with $400,000 less operating funds.
Others at the hearing were more concerned with too much spending.
Scaggsville resident Jeff Robinson urged Ulman to avoid raising taxes in order to address budgetary needs. He said a tax hike would strain residents and business owners and discourage new residents and businesses from moving into the county.
“We need to recognize we’re still in a recession,” he said. “We will only be kicking Howard Countians where they’re already down and will be undermining the recovery we so desperately need.”
While acknowledging the county’s fiscal constraints, two residents renewed their request for an indoor, county-operated 50-meter competition pool.
Ellicott City resident Sean Costello and his sons, Benjamin and Kevin, told Ulman how such a pool would benefit the county’s large population of swimmers, and could make high school swim teams possible.
“We know time are tough and a lot of people are going to come to you with their hands out,” Costello said. “But if we don’t make some concrete steps toward this, it’s never going to happen.”
user comments (2)
user belovedcartoonmouse says...
If you can't afford it, don't buy it.
Posted 4:29 PM, 12.17.09 | Permalink
user milton says...
Only in Howard County would people come a budget meeting and ask for a 50 meter Olympic sized swimming pool in the face of the worst recession in a generation. Also, Howard County has budgeted in excess of $72 MILLION in the capital budget over the next 5 years to build a new Miller Branch library, a new Elkridge library, a new Savage library, a library in a new location and even several million to renovate the Columbia branches. Why are we building all of these new libraries if Valerie Gross cannot run the existing libraries on $15 million dollars a year that she gets from the operating budget?
Posted 5:52 PM, 12.17.09 | Permalink
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